New Delhi: A delegation of INDIA bloc MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday (March 27) and submitted a letter raising 12 issues including the failure to appoint a deputy speaker in the house, “denial of opportunity to speak” to leader of opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, “disregard” of decisions taken by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), rejection of adjournment motions, Sansad TV’s camera angles not showing the opposition, among others.
The letter seen by The Wire raises concern over “increasing disregard for parliamentary procedures and established parliamentary norms” and has been signed by parliamentarians including Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party-SP), T.R. Baalu (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT), Durai Vaiko (Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), N.K. Premchandran (Revolutionary Socialist Party), E.T. Mohammed Basheer (Indian Union Muslim League), Dharmendra Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Abhay Kushwaha (Rashtriya Janata Dal), and Congress MPs Gaurav Gogoi and K.C. Venugopal.
The letter included 12 points including non-appointment of deputy speaker in Lok Sabha which set a “dangerous precedent,” denial of speaking opportunity to the LoP which “diminishes the space for healthy debate,” microphones of opposition leaders being switched off. The letter also pointed to “disregard for BAC decisions” and said that the government has started introducing business in the House without consulting or informing the BAC and cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech last week when the BAC was not informed. Last week Modi gave a statement on the Kumbh Mela in the Lok Sabha.
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The other issues raised in the letter were “neglect and rejection of adjournment motions”, “exclusion of key ministries in Budget and Demand for Grants discussions”, “lack of discussions under Rule 193” that allows for a discussion on matters of urgent public importance without voting, interference in parliamentary standing committees by the speaker’s office, neglect of private members’ bills and resolutions, opposition members not being consulted on constitution of House committees, lack of regular consultative committee meetings and Sansad TV’s angles not showing opposition members whenever they are speaking.
The letter comes a day after a delegation of 70 Congress MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday to raise the denial of opportunity to Gandhi to speak in the House. The meeting came after Birla, while adjourning the House at 1 pm following the zero hour, said that Gandhi should follow the rules of the House. Gandhi said that he wanted to speak after Birla’s statement but the Speaker “ran away”.
“These developments are deeply concerning and warrant immediate corrective measures to uphold the integrity of parliamentary democracy. We urge you to take appropriate steps to restore fairness, transparency and adherence to established parliamentary norms,” the letter given to the speaker on Thursday says.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Birla, Congress MP Gogoi said that the opposition members had raised their joint concerns.
“We raised how the ruling party is violating the traditions, rules and culture of the House. In the letter we have raised the issue that when the speaker came yesterday and read his statement he did not clarify what incident he was referring to,” he said.
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“He referred to Rule 349 but what specific incident he was referring to was not made clear. We saw outside the House how this statement was politicised. And we have raised this with the speaker today. Inside the House we abide by parliamentary norms and we have raised many other concerns along with this,” he added.
Gogoi did not, however, state what was said by the speaker in response to the concerns raised by the opposition members.
While adjourning the House on Wednesday, Birla had said: “In this House, father and daughter, mother and daughter, husband and wife have been members. In this context, I expect the leader of the opposition to conduct himself in accordance with Rule 349 that deals with rules to be observed by members in the House. I urge the leader of opposition to abide by the dignity and rules of the House.”
While Birla did not provide any reasons behind his statement, BJP’s Amit Malviya in a tweet on Wednesday showed Gandhi’s interaction with his sister and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi in the House calling it “unparliamentary”.
